Adobe Camera Raw opening images

When I open raw files in cs3 or cs4 they are opened with some of the settings already processed. For instance, when I open on the brightness slider is already over and so is the fill light and contrast....

How can I get cs3 and cs4 to open the raw files as they are with no processing on it's own? Thanks.

Set ALL the settings to what you want and then save as new ACR default ... (In the upper right hand corner of the slider dialogue is a drop down menu with this option )

Like Neumanns says above. The only thing I can think of that would cause unusual settings is if you had the file worked on before, or worked on it in Lightroom and saved the edits to an XMP file that CS read, or you saved settings in ACR at some point as the default.

But, some ACR controls do have a default setting of above 0 (brightness, for some reason, has the value 50 as the default opening value, even though it seems it should be 0, since sliding it down to 0 really darkens things). Contrast has a default setting and blacks have a default setting that are above zero -- I think this is meant as an "automatic compensation" for your cameras dealiasing softness. Chroma/Color noise has a default setting to get rid of some base color noise, and three of the 4 sharpening sliders also have a bit of a default, again making an assumption of the dealiasing softness.

Shooting wrote in post #8362514
When I open raw files in cs3 or cs4 they are opened with some of the settings already processed. For instance, when I open on the brightness slider is already over and so is the fill light and contrast....

How can I get cs3 and cs4 to open the raw files as they are with no processing on it's own? Thanks.

There is no such thing as no processing. A RAW file is not an image format and in order for something, anything, to appear on your screen processing must be done. So the 0 on the brightness slider does not mean 0 processing or 0 brightness (which would be black, I suppose) or 0 anything. The numbers are entirely arbitrary, the 0 could be on the left end, in the middle or on the right making all the numbers negative. However, if you would prefer the default positions to be 0, it is very easy to reset the ACR defaults.

Ok..I would like to be able to open the raw image exactly as it is in the camera..It occurs the first time I open an image and haven't touched it. When I open a raw image for the first time the brightness, contrast, etc all have numbers or have the sliders already to the right like ACR has default numbers..and they are different with each image..One image had a +118 on brightness and then the next one had a +50 so that means the image I am looking at is not what was taken. I want to be able to open an image in ACR and see exactly what came out of the camera without the software doing any pre-judging of what it should be or something along those lines.

I do know that when I shot a bride, the lcd viewer on the camera was good, white dress, etc..but when I open in ACR for the first time it is all dark like it read the white dress and made it gray and the rest of the image dark, and the sliders were all over the place.

neumanns wrote in post #8362539
Set ALL the settings to what you want and then save as new ACR default ... (In the upper right hand corner of the slider dialogue is a drop down menu with this option )

Ok, I'll move them all to 0 (I guess that will let me see exactly what was shot) and save it as default and see what that does, if anything.

OK, here is the likely cause: you have Auto Tone Adjustments turned on. This will try to tone down hightlights (bride's dress), lighten shadows (groom's suit), etc. This to me is a "bad thing" but is there.

To get rid of it, go to the Preferences dialog box (the tool icon on top with the bulleted lines toward the right) and uncheck Apply auto tone adjustments.

By default, ACR sets Brightness to 50, Contrast to 25, and Blacks to 5 (in the Basic tab).

O.K., then disable ACR's Auto Correction feature. However, what you see on the lcd is not the RAW. It is the jpg processed by the camera and embedded in the RAW file. With a bit of work you can set ACR's defaults to get close to Canon's processing (now that ACR has Camera Profiles) but it will not duplicate it exactly. For that use DPP or, even better, ZB/RIT.

Hold your applause for me until we see if it works.

Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back...

But I see Elie posted the likely answer before me so kudos (and the broken arm) go to him. I'll settle for warm and fuzzy feelings.

Have a hug.

Heh!

I looked and the autocorrection was not checked so I went ahead and saved them all as a new defaul to 0.

If the camera viewer is showing the jpeg that is in the raw then why not shoot jpeg and get exactly what you see?

Shooting wrote in post #8363772
I looked and the autocorrection was not checked so I went ahead and saved them all as a new defaul to 0.

If the camera viewer is showing the jpeg that is in the raw then why not shoot jpeg and get exactly what you see?

Those who shoot Raw only use a preset which "approximates" a jpeg as a "starting point" and go on from there. The added bit depth between a Raw file and an 8-bit jpeg gives more latitude in adjusting things, and also give a base "back to the beginning" point, the Raw file with no adjustments, to start over with a new creation.

That being said, some people do prefer shooting jpegs for various reasons. The bare-bones fact, though, is that a jpeg conversion can at best be "as good as" a Raw conversion on the surface, but never better than the capabilities of a Raw-processed image, whereas a Raw-processed image can exceed the quality of a jpeg in the right hands.